Theodosian Diocese

Theodosian Diocese
Theodosian Diocese
	Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
	; Kazan Cathedral in Feodosia
General information
Diocesan Center	Theodosius
Founded by	1485 , 2012
Control
Ruling bishop	Plato (Udovenko) (from December 20, 2012 )
Cathedral Church	Kazan Cathedral (Feodosia)
Site
Map

Theodosian diocese is the diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate within the administrative borders of Feodosia , Kerch , Sudak and the Leninsky district of Crimea .

Content

History

Cafa, ancient Theodosia - the center of Genoese possessions in the Northern Black Sea region was the diocesan center of the Catholic diocese. The Catholic bishops in the Cafe have been known since 1318 ^[1] . The German traveler Shtilberg in 1421 writes that there are three bishops in the Cafe: Catholic, Armenian and Greek, meaning Greek most likely Metropolitan Sugdei, who accidentally ended up there ^[2] .

The city with a mixed population, consisting mainly of Greeks and Armenians, and under the domination of the Catholics of the Genoese, proved to be fertile ground for the union. Therefore, the appearance of a Uniate bishop here was quite a matter of expectation. The first mention of a Uniate bishop dates back to 1464. After his death in 1468, by the will of the Pope of Rome and with the assistance of the titular Uniate Patriarch Constantinople Vissarion , Archbishop Pasomius of Amasia was put on the Kafa chair, but was killed by robbers on the road in 1470. In 1472, Kafa’s priest Nikolai became bishop of Kafa. Delivered according to the papal bull for the Christians of Kafa and Soldayi (Sugdei), it received the name Full. However, he was able to get to his department only at the end of 1474, and in 1475 Kafa was captured by the Ottomans ^[3] .

In addition to Catholics and Uniates, the city has a large number of Armenians who belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church , but many Armenians adopted Catholicism.

The Catholic diocese is unlikely to survive after the conquest of Kafa by the Ottomans ^[4] . Probably the same fate befell the Uniate. The defeat of the city that followed its capture did not deprive this important point of the Crimean coast. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the near future the city was restored under the rule of the new owners.

Kafa Metropolis

Prior to the establishment of the Orthodox Kafa Metropolis, the local Orthodox population was fed by the Metropolitan of Sugdei . The Orthodox diocese of the Church of Constantinople arose here already under Turkish rule, in 1485.

The first well-known Kafinsky lord, Metropolitan Sofrony, was mentioned under 1546.

In 1616, the Sughdean and Full dioceses were annexed to the Kaf diocese. Since that time, the diocese received the name of Kaf and Full. The first metropolitan of Kafsky and Full was Mitrofan.

In 1666, the diocese was transferred to the administration of the Amasian metropolitans, and in 1678 it was annexed to the Gotfi metropolis, and the Gotfi metropolitans for some time had a residence in Kaffa. The title of Kaffsky (in the later form of Kefaysky) entered the title of Gottian rulers: the last of them, St. Ignatius of Mariupol in the second half of the 18th century, also wore it and transferred it to the jurisdiction of the Russian Church .

Theodosian and Mariupol Vicariate

On March 7, 1787, in the city, at the Vvedensky church, its own episcopal department was revived as a semi-independent vicarnate of the Ekaterinoslav diocese for the nourishment of Orthodox Greeks, who began to actively move to the Empire during these years ^[5] . Vicariate was called “Theodosia and Mariupol” due to the fact that Mariupol served as the last seat of the last bishop of the ancient Gotfi department . It was very difficult to serve the bishops of Theodosia: the lack of flock, competent priests familiar with the rules of Russian church administration, and great limited means. The church life of the peninsula was literally restored in crumbs ^[6] .

Soon, although the Theodosian rulers retained their former title, their whereabouts were transferred to near Karasu-Bazar (now Belogorsk ). Here the vicars stayed in the Tauride Palace organized by Prince Potemkin from 1791 until the abolition of the department on October 16, 1799.

In 1917 or a little later, Theodosian vicarism was renewed, but was stopped by the beginning of the 1930s.

On May 31, 2010, the titular Kuff Vicar of the Korsun diocese was established with a seat in France. In the same year, the diocese was unsubstituted and abolished.